Artist: Tito Puente
Author: Tito Puente
Label: Tico
Year: 1962

On lp El Rey Bravo (reissued on Fania). Lower East Side mambo bandleader of Puertorican descent. Wanted to become a dancer but after a serious leg injury decided to make everyone else dance instead. Counted Mongo Santamaria and Ray Baretto among his bandmembers.

From Ned Sublette's Cuba And Its Music (2004): Israël 'Cachao' Lopez made the bass into a solo instrument in Cuba. But perhaps even more important, with Cachao the modern bass feel of Cuban music begins. And with that begins the bass feel of the second half op the 20th century in US music as well - those funky ostinatos that we know from later decades of R&B, which have become such a part of the environment that we don't even think about where they came from. In 1942, Cachao wrote a tune for the Orq. Antonio Arcaña, Rareza de Melitón, with a memorable catchy tumbao. In 1957, Arcaña recorded a reworking of it under the name Chanchullo, and in 1962 Tito Puente reworked it into Oye Como Va, still with that same groove.